Here's to Hoping
by Canon Archives
Summary: Calypso's thoughts starting right after Leo leaves. Ends with yet another version of a reunion. Please read!
1. Chapter 1

**You would think I'd eventually stop writing these but... Here's another reunion guys! Starts from the moment he leaves all the way through to his return. Somehow imagining this stuff really never gets boring.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Leo and Calypso, but I love them dearly and tend to project myself into their characters.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

What. Just. Happened.

Calypso's heart was beating at a mile a minute, and she was pretty darn sure it wasn't because she had run back to her cave.

She was shaking. When she had kissed him on the beach, it had taken every ounce of her willpower not to do it again. The shocking, blissful sensations of his warmth and his hands and his smell and the taste of his lips-

"Styx!" She shouted loudly, her voice echoing through the cave. She doubled over, her heart throbbing in pain. How could this have happened? After being so certain this whole time that she couldn't fall in love with him, the last thing she expected was to feel so hurt when he left.

She banged her fists against the cave wall, screaming out every swear word in every language she knew. It didn't help. Breathing hard, she suddenly felt light-headed and dizzy. She slowly slid herself down to the ground with her back against the wall. The world seemed to be closing in around her. She focused on breathing evenly, staying very still. After a few minutes the world finally stopped spinning, and she closed her eyes.

It didn't usually hurt this much. Usually she could see it coming. With her past heroes, she had fallen gradually with lots of time to brace herself for the pain. But with Leo... she didn't even realize she was falling until she had already hit the ground. Hard.

He did it so sneakily too. He managed to slip so swiftly into her life here that she didn't even notice how much she needed him there. As much as he annoyed her each day, she found that those annoying habits were the ones that let her know she wasn't alone. He had a way of understanding her that she couldn't explain. It was almost like he already knew her. He always seemed to know what to say at exactly the right moments. What had begun as a deal to coexist had somehow developed into a work relationship, then into a friendship, and now she was suddenly struggling to breathe at the thought of living without him.

She was not ready for him to go. Not now! Not now, when there was so much she wanted to tell him! And yet she had pushed him to leave. She had sent him away as fast as she could, because if she didn't, she would not have let him go at all.

Calypso shivered, thinking once again about that kiss on the beach. Gods, what she would give to do that again... Was this normal? It was only a kiss! And yet she felt maddeningly unfinished with that _infuriating_ boy. Gods, she wanted to slap him! Honestly. How could he be so infuriating when he was here, and be just as infuriating when he wasn't here?!

She just couldn't win.

Calypso balled her fists. She had to do something. Walking over to her work table, she rummaged through some of the left over cloth and tools from their project. You'd think she would have been more prepared for this. Everything around her was devoted to getting Leo off of her island, and yet his leaving still felt like a painful punch in the gut.

Something poking out from under the table suddenly caught her eye. Kneeling down, she identified it as an old, dusty, unused suitcase.

Calypso had a vague memory of it appearing one day a couple of millennia back. She had no idea why, since she was supposedly here forever. Seeing it now, she figured, what the hell.

She pulled it out from under the table and threw it open onto her bed. She went over to her closet and grabbed a handful of clothes.

As she packed, her mind began to wander, and for the first time in her existence, Calypso began to wonder if forever really meant _forever._ Obviously her punishment was _said_ to be forever - an eternity of emotional torture. To be honest, the punishment wasn't too surprising. Even before the Titan War, the gods never liked her much. She was naive, self-centered, and seductive. When she was young, she truly believed she could make any man fall in love with her through physical appeal and looks. So when she naively stood with the titans during the war, the gods decided to teach her a lesson.

Calypso hadn't realized this until later, of course. Over time, as each hero came and left, she did learn of her own insignificance, and the importance of putting the needs of others above her own. She had learned what it meant to really care about someone else, to be selfless, and how to be a good friend.

It seemed that she still was rather naive though. Somehow, she had never given up hope that eventually the gods would lift her curse and set her free. She had stupidly thought that if she _really_ learned her lesson and was able to prove that she wasn't who she used to be, that things could change.

But then Leo Valdez stood in front of the raft, looking at her like no one else had. His eyes made her feel like she was important, like she was _needed_... and Calypso finally realized her last lesson:

No matter what she did and no matter who they sent to her island, forever really meant _forever_.

Tears ran down her cheeks. She was not ready to accept that yet. What else did she have, if not the hope that one day things could be different? She wasn't sure she would _ever_ be able to accept forever as forever.

Calypso paused her packing, and looked around her cave at all the murals and tapestries and the millions of projects she had worked on over the years... This cozy place, that she had come to call home.

Looking at it now, a growing anger began rising in her chest. Home? She called this _home_? This was the _home_ of a pathetic tragedy! The home of a girl who believed she could wait around for eternity for her Prince Charming to finally save her.

No. Calypso was not going to be that naive, tragic, pathetic girl any longer. She grabbed another handful of clothing out of her closet. _I have to go home_ , she thought. _Yes, that's exactly where I'm going. I'll go find Leo. Leo is home. He will take me home._

Thinking of Leo again made her cry harder as she folded the clothes into the suitcase. _Forever is not forever,_ she tried to convince herself. _I have control. I'm going to go home whether the gods like it or not!_

She was shaking again. She tried to be strong. She had to be like Leo, believing that she would just have to achieve the impossible.

But it _was_ impossible! It was! She couldn't just get up and leave!

"What am I doing?!" She exclaimed aloud. She sat down on her bed next to the suitcase and pressed her hands against her wet, bloodshot eyes. This whole thing was pointless. She couldn't go anywhere. Leo was already gone. He was as good as dead, and if she tried for a moment to follow him, this entire prison island would turn against her and keep her on the shore.

"I just want to go home!" She shouted out, falling back onto the bed. As if anyone was listening. As if anyone even cared.

Leo cared.

Or so she hoped.

"I need tea," she said quickly, before that thought could take her down a worse road.

 _Yes, tea. Tea always helps,_ she told herself as she made her way over to the stove to boil water.

She lit the stove, doing her best to ignore how much the flames reminded her a Leo. It was hard to imagine that she could ever get over him like she had the others. Not when she only just realized how much she loved him! Something about this felt different to her, despite everything. He, more than any of the others, seemed to really care about her. He didn't have any other girl in his life, as far as she knew. She so desperately wanted to hope that somehow he really could achieve the impossible. That he really would come back.

 _I'm just deceiving myself_ , she decided, reaching for a tea mug out of the cabinet. _He's no different. He'll go on with his life, fall in love with someone else like they all did, forget all about me-_

Calypso let out a gasp, the mug slipping out of her hand onto the floor. The glass shattered, pieces flying in all directions. Calypso let out a pained sob.

 _He's going to forget me_ , she realized. _Leo is going to forget me._

Her knees buckled. As she fell to the floor, she felt herself break, just like the mug. Her sobs came out silently and uncontrollably. She couldn't stand the thought of him with someone else, a nameless girl of the future. How could he look at anyone else the way he looked at her?

 _He's mine!_ She wanted to scream. _You can't have him, he's mine!_

But he wasn't hers. He could never be hers. He would forget. _Leo_ would forget her.


	2. Chapter 2

**So in the real reunion, she seemed to be pretty unsurprised to see him when he showed up. People have attributed that to the gods telling her he was coming or something, but I wasn't crazy about that idea. In my mind, the gods have basically forgotten about her and don't bother making contact with her. So I came up with a way for her to figure out he was coming back on her own.**

 **Let me know if you like it!**

* * *

She cried for three days straight after that.

Her days and nights were spent inside, crying and sleeping continuously. She had found some of his clothes that he had left behind, one of which was a tattered, partially burnt jacket. She put it on and never took it off. It smelled smoky and comforting, just like Leo. She kept the fireplace lit for the same reason. She replayed every conversation she'd had with him over and over in her head. Somehow she even made herself laugh a few times, only to be interrupted with more crying. She was an absolute mess, and she knew it.

Calypso also knew that she needed to start her recovery routine. Three days was a long time to only be crying. Normally it only took about a day for her to start eliminating reminders of the latest hero. But now after three days, she still didn't feel like doing anything but sit inside her cave.

She decided that she was going to have to force herself to start. Calypso gathered up what she could find of his burnable things and sat down by the fire. All of the left over cloth she had been using for the boat sail she included in the pile. Unfortunately, several of his shirts had been made with her very own fireproof cloth, so of course, they couldn't be burned. She scolded herself for thinking of such a stupid idea. Way to make it more difficult for herself.

She was about to toss everything in when she realized she was still wearing that one jacket. She hesitated. _You have to do it_ , she reminded herself. She made herself take off the jacket, savoring the feeling of the fabric against her bare skin. She added it to the other clothes.

Calypso stared at the pile of clothes for a moment, running her hands over the fabric. So many memories went along with these items. _Memories_ , she reminded herself, _that he will forget._

Her tears started up again, and before she could tell herself not to, she threw the pile into the flames. The cloth caught quickly, and she suddenly panicked.

"No!" She screamed. Calypso snatched the jacket she had been wearing out of the fire and clung it to her chest. Everything else turned to ash, and she shook with sobs.

She looked down at the jacket she had saved from the fire. The bottom had a hole burned through the fabric and the ends of the sleeves were blackened, but overall the jacket had been spared. In fact, Calypso found that she liked it even more now.

She sighed. _Well that was not particularly successful,_ she thought. She dabbed her eyes with the jacket and then put it back on.

"I need some fresh air," she decided. Calypso got up and walked outside her cave, not bothering with shoes. The bright light was a bit disconcerting and she squinted in the sun. Birds chirped and the wind blew, as if nothing was different. Calypso scowled. Everything was too familiar. Disguising a prison as a paradise - it was sick. Her own existence might as well be as fictitious as her island.

Calypso walked without a destination. There were only so many places you could go on an island. She focused on moving, to keep her mind distracted. Everything looked the same as it had always been, until she reached Leo's makeshift workshop.

Calypso stopped abruptly in her tracks. The workshop wasn't much. It was located in a small clearing in the trees, and consisted of a wooden stool and a rickety work table, strewn with tools and papers and wires. It was eerily quiet. This place was _never_ quiet.

She moved slowly over to the table, half expecting Leo to come strolling around the corner wearing his toolbelt. Everything was just as he had left it. The table was covered in diagrams, random sheets of scratched numbers and notes, and some half-built pieces of mechanical stuff. Calypso smiled, carefully running her hand over the papers.

 _You are going to have to get rid of all this_ , she reminded herself with a frown. She silently cursed Leo for leaving her with so much evidence of _him_. It made everything so much more difficult.

 _He wanted to leave_ , she told herself. _He wanted to leave from the moment he came! He's going to forget you! He's going to get married to someone else one day! He's never gonna come back! He never cared about you! He never wanted you! He's going to forget!_

Calypso lifted her arm in anger, fully intending to knock everything off the table. But just as she was about to swing, something caught her eye that made her pause.

She pulled out one of the papers, which looked like a kind of building layout. At the top of the sketch, it said in scrawly writing:

 _Leo and Calypso's Auto Repair Garage - Draft 1_

Calypso stopped breathing.

 _That's an awful lot of planning for someone who doesn't care_ , her mind chided.

"Gods," she breathed aloud.

It was a plan. A real plan. And there was her own name, in a plan. _She_ was in a plan for the future. In a plan for _his_ future.

Calypso swallowed. She remembered talking about this Garage idea, and at the time she had thought it was just a silly thing he said to make her laugh. He had mentioned it again right before he left. _"You didn't really think I could start Leo and Calypso's Auto Repair without Calypso, did you?"_

And there it was, just sitting among the papers, as if he was saying to her, _I just left for a bit to save the world and everything, but I'm gonna come back 'cause we still have an awesome future to plan!_

"Oh gods," she said again. A kind of relief came over her, and suddenly she was laughing. She pulled up the stool and sat down at the table, excited to see what her own future entailed. What _their_ future entailed. What _his_ future, which _she_ was a part of, entailed.

The plan had three rooms. The biggest one in the middle was labeled 'workshop.' It was flanked on either side with smaller rooms, one labeled 'kitchen,' the other labeled 'store.'

"Oh Leo," Calypso grinned, grabbing a pencil sitting on the table. "You know I need a bigger kitchen than that." She sketched a larger rectangle over the one he had drawn. "And we grow our own spices for the cider, so I need a garden in the back," she took out a chunk of what he had made part of the workshop and labeled it 'garden.'

Calypso worked for a long while on editing this rough plan of the Garage. It was great for her to feel like she was being productive. She clung to this idea of a future, in a world outside of the one she was forced to live in. It was a dream. A place to go. A home.

As she worked, she almost forgot that he wasn't still there, somewhere on the island, building some new, not very useful contraption for Ogygia. After making several improvements to the plan, it was almost dusk. Calypso finally looked up from her work, her neck aching to be stretched. She turned around in the stool, looking around the island, remembering once again that she was still alone.

Her heart fell with a clunk. She had been deceiving herself again, hadn't she? Leo was not here. He could not come back. Even if maybe he wanted to, it was completely impossible. How come she _refused_ to stop hoping?

It was beginning to get chilly, and the tattered jacket she was still wearing was not enough to keep her warm. Calypso spotted a wool blanket on the ground that Leo had accumulated, and she went to shake it out. She sighed. Wrapping the blanket around herself, she went back over to the table and picked up the sketch.

It was a wonderful idea, really. It was an idea they had thought of together. But she knew deep down that it could never actually happen. It was as fictitious as Ogygia.

Calypso lied down on her stomach with the blanket and the drawing on the grass. At least he had left her something. Something that showed that he at least cared enough to dream of a future with her. No one had ever done anything like that before.

As Calypso admired the plan, something inclined her to turn the page over. She found that there was another drawing on the back - a more detailed drawing, with lots of writing and numbers scribbled around the edges. The sketch looked like some kind of circular, mechanical object with lots of gears. The gears were numbered, and parts were labeled. Calypso attempted to read some of the writing around the sides.

"Astrolabe," she murmured. She didn't know what that was, but she guessed it was what the drawing was of. She couldn't read most of what was written about it. "Ogygia," she read in surprise. That word she certainly recognized. Did this thing have something to do with Ogygia? Something to do with her?

She turned the page so she could read another edge. "Bronze... dragon," she made out. "Festus," she figured that refered to. "Ogygia... navigation!" Calypso gasped. Was this some sort of navigation device? Another plan? A plan... to come back?

She couldn't believe that maybe he had figured out a way. Her heart was suddenly pounding quickly, and she tried to read more.

"How... find... direction..." Calypso read. There was another word there, but she couldn't quite make it out. The same one was written in several other places around the sketch, with arrows pointing to different places on the object.

"Enyral?" She tried. "Cryoel?" She looked at another place where it was written and suddenly she figured it out. "Crystal!" She exclaimed. There was a question mark after the word in several places. Crystal. He had asked for a crystal, she remembered. A crystal from her cave. He must have needed it for his plan. Could that be the answer? Was that somehow the key to bring him back?

Calypso was so excited that she had to stand up again. She couldn't believe this was happening. Leo had a plan. An actual idea of how to get back to her. He was really _trying_ to come back.

She had never been as hopeful as she was now. All of those empty promises from the other heroes were just because they felt bad about leaving. But Leo wasn't the type to do that. He had promised her he would come back because he _actually_ thought he _could_. And if _he_ thought he could, then Calypso had to believe that he could too.

Calypso squealed in excitement and hugged the paper to her chest. He was coming back! Leo was going to come back and they were going to have a workshop and she was finally, finally going to go home!

The sky had turned dark now. _He could be back any second!_ She thought excitedly. She should finish packing so she would be ready. What was the world going to be like now? Would she still be immortal when she left? A million questions began whizzing through her head. _Don't get too excited_ , her mind warned her. _He isn't back yet._

But it was already too late. Calypso's hopes were up way higher than was safe. She looked at the diagram again, and then turned it around to look at the layout sketch and smiled. What else did she have, really, if not hope?


	3. Chapter 3

**Final chapter, the reunion! (yet ANOTHER version by me)**

* * *

The wait was agony.

She clung to that piece of paper like a life line, and in a way, it really was. But the number of times she went around in circles in her head about it was countless. Was he coming back? What if he failed? Did he die trying? Maybe he had given up. Did he still want to come back? Was he even still alive?

There were no answers to any of these questions. All Calypso could do was wait, just like she had been doing forever. Somehow the wait had gotten so much longer. She spent nearly all of her time pacing along the beach, peering out over the horizon. If she was deceiving herself, she was way too blinded by hope to snap out of it. All of her eggs were in one, infuriatingly perfect basket.

A thought had occurred to her at one point. What if some new hero showed up on her island instead? Calypso tried to avoid thinking on that possibility. She honestly wasn't sure she could face a heartbreak that devastating. She had thought she'd had it bad when Percy Jackson left her! No. That could hardly compare to this. Calypso had evidence in her hand that Leo Valdez wanted her, and that he was doing everything he could to get back to her. She wanted nothing more than the future drawn on that piece of paper. And Leo wanted it too.

 _Come back, come back, come back_ , she chanted over and over in her head.

* * *

The day it finally happened was the one day she wasn't expecting it.

Calypso had finally retired to her cave because she really wasn't sleeping enough. When she woke up that morning she decided to work in her garden, because everything was drooping. She didn't know if she would be here much longer, but still, Caypso hated a droopy garden and just had to fix it. She figured she could afford one day off the coast.

Of course he chose that one day to show up.

She was busy pulling up the weeds that had invaded her plants when suddenly -

 _Whoosh._

Calypso jumped at the deafening noise, and before she could think she found herself on her feet. Her stomach did three somersaults in a row, and she immediately began sprinting to the coast.

All of her doubts rose to the surface as she ran. Her heart was pounding way faster than normal. _Oh gods oh gods oh gods,_ she thought. _Please be Leo, please be Leo, please be Leo,_ she prayed over and over.

She reached the edge of the forest at the point where the trees met the sand, and Calypso stopped. She pressed her back against one of the tree trunks, trying to catch her breath.

 _What if it's not him?_ She thought again worriedly. To be honest, she was absolutely terrified. This was the moment where either all of her dreams would come true, or all of her dreams would be completely crushed. It was the latter that kept her from looking behind her.

While she debated what to do, her decision was made for her when she suddenly heard a loud _whoop_ from the beach.

"Oh yeah, who's back!"

Calypso's heart lept. She turned around to see a familiar figure dancing around by the water, kicking up sand.

"On this beach, a _second_ time-" he fell back onto the sand and pointed at the sky. "In your face, Zeus!" He let out another _whoop_ and rolled over on the sand.

Another creature was bounding around as well- what looked to be a giant, mechanical bronze dragon. _Festus_ , Calypso knew immediately. He was even more glorious than she had imagined. The dragon lifted its head to the sky, letting out a roaring flame of fire.

Leo stood up and turned to the dragon, who made some creaking and whirring noises. Leo seemed to understand what the creature wanted and poured a bottle of something into it's mouth.

Calypso hadn't meant to start running, but her feet began moving without her consent. She ran in what felt like slow motion, until finally she stopped right behind him.

His back was still turned, and Calypso desperately wanted to see his eyes. "That's enough fuel, Buddy," she heard him say. Festus maneuvered his metallic body away and frolicked along the waters edge. "We have to find-"

Leo turned around, and suddenly they were face to face. When he saw her, a wide grin spread across his face that reached all the way up to his eyes.

Calypso was completely breathless. He was really here! She wanted to say something, but her vocal chords wouldn't work. Instead, she tentatively reached a hand towards his face, needing to feel the warmth of his skin.

Suddenly, he began laughing. Confused, Calypso dropped her hand.

"What are you _wearing?_ " He laughed harder. The sound of his voice was so incredibly soothing, and his laugh sent warmth through Calypso's whole body.

Realizing that he was making fun of her, Calypso remembered she was still wearing his disgusting, tattered jacket. She felt mildly embarrassed, but it only lasted for a second. A giant smile spread across her face as he continued cracking up in front of her. Nothing could have been a better confirmation of Leo really being here than this.

"Is that _my_ ja-"

Before he had finished his question, she had already launched herself into his arms and ran her hands into his hair.

"Shut up!" She exclaimed, though she was laughing a little as well. She realized that she was simultaneously crying. "Shut up," she murmured again as she dug her face into his neck. Closing her eyes, she breathed in deeply, letting his smoky smell and warm skin fill her senses. His hands were pressed against her lower back, and his thin fingers tapped rapidly in an odd rhythm. All of these instantaneous sensations sent a sudden shiver down her spine. She moved her left hand down to the back of his neck as her other hand gripped his soft curls, and she let out a soft breath.

Leo ran his left hand over her head and through her hair, and Calypso could just barely feel the gentle graze of his fingers on her back.

"I can't believe you are actually wearing my burnt jacket," he whispered into her ear.

Calypso felt a familiar annoyance come over her, and she pulled her head back to look at him. He was still laughing at her.

She gave him a light smack on the back of the head. "Oh stop," she scolded him with a smile. She brushed the hair off his forehead, savoring the warmth of his skin. "Just... let me look at you."

She sniffed and took a step back to analyze his physical state. He was completely covered in grime and dirt and who knows what else (though that wasn't exactly new). He still wore the army jacket she had made him, but somehow his fireproof clothes were about as tattered as the jacket she was wearing. He had plenty of scrapes and bruises, but luckily nothing looked urgent. The most notable difference were the giant, dark rings under his eyes. They were bloodshot and tired. He had seen a lot since the last time he'd been there.

She frowned.

"You look awful," she stated bluntly.

Leo snorted. "I came all the way back here so you could tell me I look awful?" He held out his arms. "You know Sunshine, it wasn't exactly easy getting here. I've been a little too busy achieving the impossible to worry about my looks-"

When she kissed him her entire body reacted almost instantly. He responded just as quickly. She felt her limbs go numb and a strange sound came from the back of her throat involuntarily. This was even better than the first time. He tried to move impossibly closer to her and they swayed back a little. She could feel him smiling against her lips. It was like her eons of waiting were just so she could have the chance to do this again.

She broke away so they could breathe for a moment. He kept their foreheads pressed against one another and their bodies didn't move an inch.

"You're late," she purred. She smiled at the same time he did.

"Sorry babe," Leo replied. "Dirt Face took a long time to fall back asleep."

They both laughed before he kissed her again, sending another jolt of electricity down her spine. Calypso was a little worried her knees wouldn't hold up. But _gods_ this felt so good. His hands ran up and down her back and she sighed.

He broke away this time. "You know what I think?" He said, moving his hands to her waist. "I think you are very ready to get out of here."

Calypso smiled. Had she mentioned that he had a way of always knowing exactly what she was thinking?

"Can we go home now?" She asked hopefully.

"Home?" Leo scrunched his eyebrows together. "Where is home?"

Calypso reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the Garage sketch. She handed it to him, and it took him a moment to realize what it was.

When he recognized it he laughed. "You found the blueprint!" He said excitedly. Leo looked more closely at the drawing. "I see you have been busy," he grinned at her. "What did you change?"

Calypso peered over his shoulder and began pointing to some of the improvements she had made. "I don't want a front entrance to the kitchen, it's too crowded next to the front window," she explained. "So I moved it to the back left corner."

"What's this?" He asked, pointing at the garden space she had created. "You put a garden in my workshop?"

Calypso crossed her arms. "You want cider and stew, then I need to grow the spices and vegetables," she defended herself.

"Oh come on," He complained. "I need that space-"

"Oh you don't need _all_ that space," Calypso said. She knew he knew she was right. It didn't stop him from trying though.

As Leo attempted to argue, Calypso took his hand and dragged him back towards her cave. "You arent going to win this one," she rolled her eyes as he talked.

"Okay well then how about-"

"Leo."

"But what if-"

"Leo!" She stopped at the entrance to her cave and turned to look at him. He finally shut up for a moment. She gestured toward the cave. "Be a gentleman and grab my luggage," she said.

Leo finally noticed the suitcase sitting at the entrance of the cave, and he grinned.

"Boy, you really _are_ ready to get out of here," he said, picking up the suitcase off the ground. He threw the suitcase over his shoulder and made an exaggerated gesture back towards the coast.

"After you, m'lady," he played, with a bow and everything. Calypso laughed and walked ahead of him towards the beach. He followed right behind. "Let's go find our ride."

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 **Please leave a review so I know you read it!**


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